How Many Nipples Do Dogs Have And Why Male Dogs Have Them Too

How many nipples do dogs have, that’s the question of the day and we would really love to know this one right? It’s interesting because almost any one of us grew up with dogs around the house and most of you have a little friend with them right now right? So when these questions come up, we try and answer them.

If you havn’t noticed it by now, your dog has nipples, YES, even if your dog is a male and you think wait, what, why does my male dog have nipples? Well, it does. Get over it, and keep reading to find out why, and how many nipples it really has.

So how many nipples do dogs have and why?

So the super duper short answer is that dogs have between 6 to 10 nipples on average. But it really depends on the breed of the dog, it’s also good to know that dogs normally have the same number of nipples on each side, meaning they might have 3 on each side. But not always. There you go, you can browse to the next article now, or keep reading if you want to go a little bit deeper.

Ok, so we figured out how many nipples do dogs have on average, but now I want to know why they have so much? Do they really need 10 nipples?! Sounds a bit much.

Well, it’s a good question with a really simple answer, dogs have around 6 – 10 nipples because their litter is usually big. When dogs give birth usually the number is 5 – 10 puppies and sometimes even more, so with that many puppies and little mouths to feed, you need a lot of nipples to keep up with the demand. Think about it, humans have 2 nipples right? And how many babies do humans usually have a the same time? One or two right? So nature has it’s ways to make sense.

OK I get it. But why male dogs have nipples too?

Again, the answer here is rather simple, like us male humans, we are also born with nipples even though men do not breastfeed right? So why is that? Well, it’s because in the first few weeks of the pregnancy, humans and dogs alike develop their nipples, before the genes that determine whether a male or a female will be born, so both sexes are born with nipples and the males just have to deal with it.